THE DAILY WHIP: THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2013

**Members are advised that following last votes, the House is expected to continue consideration of amendments to H.R. 1960 late into the evening.

H.Res. 260 – Rule providing for further consideration of H.R. 1960– National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 (Rep. McKeon – Armed Services) (One Hour of debate). The Rules committee has recommended a structured Rule for amendments. The Rule provides for consideration of 172 amendments, each debatable for 10 minutes, equally controlled by the proponent and opponent of the amendment.

The Rule also provides the Chairman of the committee on Armed Services authority to offer amendments en bloc, consisting of amendments not previously considered. All en bloc amendments are debatable for 20 minutes equally divided between the Chair and Ranking Member of the committee on Armed Services. The Rule allows one motion to recommit, with or without instructions and waives all points of order against the legislation.

The Rules Committee excluded several important amendments, including not allowing critical debate on the urgent problem of sexual assault in the military. The committee rejected a motion made by Mr. McGovern of Massachusetts to make in order an amendment offered by Ms. Speier of California that would have required cases of sexual assault be taken out of the chain of command by giving prosecutorial discretion to the Office of Chief Prosecutor. The Committee also rejected a motion made by Mr. McGovern to consider H.R. 1960 under an open Rule.

Continue Consideration of H.R. 1960 - National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 (Rep. McKeon – Armed Services). The bill would provide for the authorization of funding for the Department of Defense and other related agencies, programs, and operations for Fiscal Year 2014. It provides for $552.1 billion in new discretionary authority for DOD ($54 billion above sequestration levels) plus an additional $85.8 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) ($5 billion above the President’s request).

In addition to authorizing all operations at the Pentagon, as well as military operations overseas, the bill also includes some policy additions/restrictions, including: a restriction of funds used to both release prisoners at the Guantánamo Bay detention center to a foreign country or entity, and on domestic transfers and construction or modification of U.S. facilities to house Guantánamo detainees; Sexual Assault Prevention (SAP), including a removal of commanders’ authority to dismiss or reduce court martial sentences, longer statutes of limitations, victim counseling, and SAP training requirements and oversight; and language aimed at expanding religious freedom protections for service members.

The Rule provides for no further general debate, makes in order 172 amendments, and allows for the Chairman to offer amendments en bloc:

TOMORROW’S OUTLOOK The GOP Leadership has announced the following schedule for Friday, June 14: The House will meet at 9:00 a.m. for legislative business. The House is expected to complete consideration of H.R. 1960 – National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 (Rep. McKeon – Armed Services).

The Daily Quote

“And I have to agree… on the sequestration. We… all understand that this is bad for our Nation. We voted on it, those of us who did, knowing that, understanding that it would never happen. Well, reality set in, and it happened. I've had a few people come to me and say, gee, sequestration isn't that bad. They really haven't seen the full impact to this point. We're just starting into the first year of sequestration. And I was meeting with General Breedlove today, our new European commander. And he's just a month into his new job, and he's starting to feel the sequestration. I think what we need to understand is--and I've talked to each of our military leaders as they came in and secretaries as they came before our committee for the hearings that led up to this bill--that if something doesn't happen between now and September 30, all of this work, everything that we're working on is… going away. We are cutting $487 billion out of defense over the next 10 years. That's in the bill. We also, through sequestration, cut another $500 billion out of defense over the next 10 years. That is not reflected in--this year's portion is not reflected in this bill. Our Budget Committee in the House passed a budget, and they kept the top line number from the Budget Control Act of $967 billion, and they gave us additional money for defense, which we've used in this bill. But if we're not able to resolve the differences between us and the Senate on September 30, it will be like Cinderella and that magic shoe. Everything goes away. The carriage becomes a cantaloupe, or a pumpkin, and it's bad times. We've got to deal with that, we've got to deal with raising the debt limit, and there are a lot of very serious things on the table.”